The Fuss over Gus

Will Democrats tolerate a black bigot?

Chicago Congressman Gus Savage has a way with words. He calls Ron Brown, the African American who is chairman of the Democratic Party, "Ron Beige" because he is not militant enough to suit Savage. When a reporter tried to question him about charges that one of his sons was a no-show employee on the payroll of Walter Fauntroy, Representative from Washington, D.C., he snapped, "Are you still wearing your wife's underwear?"

Last month, during a rally a few days before the Illinois primary, the five- term Democratic lawmaker outdid himself. Clumsily parodying a calypso song about a suspicious husband who wonders...